Swatgasm

I know my last entry was all about how finals week has been monotonous and endless. Well, today I think I had multiple swatgasms that made me realise why I love it here. It was a good reminder.

After all of us turned in our spiritual autobiographies for my freshman religion seminar, we collectively decided to share them with each other even though they were all very personal. Some emailed them to the class, but I met two girls for lunch to share our “meaning of life”. It was two hours and twenty minutes of swatgasmic conversation about religious institutions, the history and culture of slavery explained through African dance, public education system, communities and individuals and how those relate to colonization and varying ideas of democracy, etc. And of course, the literal spiritual journey of our respective lives. Each of them brought many thought-provoking perspectives. It was interesting because Lisa sees the world through poli-sci lenses, Kaitlin through socanth, and I through economics. I don’t think we would have conversed like this if we were at some other school…it was a wonderful bonding time outside of class.

Yeah, Lisa! : )

…back to this paper, blergh.

Finals Week & First Collection Pictures

The reading period before final week is meant to be for us to study hard before the onslaught of testing begins. Reading week begins the day classes end (two Fridays ago) and go until the day before exams start (last Thursday: my econ exam at 9 am!!) To help us relax before, in-between and after our studying, the school gives us a weekend of fun events and various study breaks through the week.

Willets Carnival
There was a popcorn and cotton-candy machine, an inflatable obstacle course, a dunk tank, lots of food and happy people. That evening, they also showed movies on Parrish beach.

SAC Study Breaks
SAC, our Students Activities Committee, held daily study breaks with the left over money from the Fun Fund. It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. They gave free pizza, donuts and muffins, sushi, fresh fruit, chocolate, cheese, and sparkling drinks, Coldstone ice cream and Rita’s water ice. (My friend adds “happiness and joy”.)

Entertainment
A few Swat bands played in Worth courtyard…all of Saturday. On Friday, a few of the dance classes preformed, and I think there were a few plays being preformed. On Monday and Tuesday there was Rhythm-n-Motion a performance as well as Jamboree. Graduating members of SASS (an Intercultural Group) held a grill party on Parrish beach. And people decided to sing folk songs for hours in Parrish Parlors. It was supposed to be relaxing?

There was something for everyone…really.

And then…

FINALS HIT

It’s been a long two weeks since we have nothing else to do but study and write papers. The days are endless without any study breaks. It’s been strange to lose the everyday structure that grounded us through the school year. On one hand, it’s liberating to wake up to your own schedule, but it’s hard to pull yourself into work-mode. Except when I do, I can’t stop. Yesterday, I edited my paper from 9 am to 5:30 pm (it was due at 6 pm); I was revising a revised draft! With papers you can always find more to add or revise. With studying for exams, you can never attain certainty that you have studied enough. It’s the universal trauma of academia.

I’m envious of those people who got to leave last week. But the seniors are leaving forever…so I’m glad I get to spend these last few days with them. Same goes for my Swatties.

I’ll update you on whether I am still alive by Friday.

Meanwhile, below are a few pictures from first collection.

Oh, Tiffany!

Class of ‘10 : )

Swat Fun

As the end of the year comes around (the end of my first year in college), events have been tripping over each other for space in the days. Lectures, panels, large-scale cultural group meetings, performance arts events, fun stuff, all in short spaces. Last weekend my friends and I went to Philadelphia for wonderful Thai food (non-sharples delight) and a concert. Unfortunately we missed
1 Dance classes putting on a performance
1 Play
1 Jazz Concert Recital
1 Party
at least.

This week is the last week of classes. My religion seminar was held outside near the President’s House (yes, he lives on campus) under a cherry blossom tree near a lilac tree. Aside from intense discussion, we ended the course by meditating for a while. The campus is celebrating by having a Willets carnival tomorrow, movies on Parrish beach complete with popcorn and cotton candy, music, food, parties, etc.

Seriously, we do work. I have 1 15 page spiritual autobiography to write, 1 3 hr english exam to prepare for, 1 3 hr stat exam and a philosophy paper or exam. It’s not as bad as my roommate who has 4 papers, 1 exam, 1 presentation and 1 lab report to write. Let the misery poker begin. Cheers to the end of the year!

Holi: Colors Galore

So Hindu Club revived itself this semester and we threw our first public event, Holi. There are about 5 of us in the club but since we are all also part of Deshi, we didn’t completely flounder. Actually, it was a wonderful success. Wednesday was an information session about the religious story behind Holi and the cultural celebrations that accompany the festival. Friday was the actual event, from 2-4. Of course Ishi went through the usual motions of getting money from SAC and SBC, getting RatTech for music and Shai and I made posters. Friday night was a party called Holi Hangama, but it was hosted by Deshi not Hindu Club. Anyways, below are pictures from Holi.

Her t-shirt was white, that was unacceptable during Holi

Everyday Swat and Admissions

Everything is beginning to bloom. Isabel, Katerina and I lay out on Parrish beach studying. A few other friends tossed the disc in the rose garden. It was a contrasting sight with mist trees barren of leaves yet the sun pretending it is summer. 80 degrees, really. We all agree that Swat is made for spring…it’s making every day more worthwhile.

It’s the everyday experience of college that makes it worthwhile, to me, more than the knowledge of the end result. You might go to college for the end result, but you stay and love it for the experience. I realize that I have taken it for granted, how accessible my teachers make themselves to us and how valuable are the classes. Well, I’d rather enjoy it than contemplate it. I’m meeting with my English professor to discuss Tender is the Night…hopefully I don’t get carried away again.

Admissions letters went out today, good luck and keep tight! I can’t wait to see y’all prospective students at Ride the Tide.

Grenades of Pop Culture

I felt like I stepped out of the Swarthmore bubble into the real world when I came off the plane last night. When I first read about the Swarthmore bubble on Swat forums, I freaked out. Existing without the constant bombardment of consumerist culture? Oh em gee! That’s essentially the Swarthmore bubble. It’s a bit of a relief but also a bit strange.

There are no advertisements except the ones in the New York Times and those colorful brochures that go into every bookstore purchase with a bag. Our hall doesn’t have a TV and the one on the second floor is the kind my great-grandparents might have had in the 1970s. In order to fulfill our TV cravings, we turn to YouTube or other websites with commercial free, free episodes. When we walk around campus, there are obviously no large signs advertising “FORMLESS OR SHAPELESS HAIR? TRY NEW BRAND X SHAMPOO”.

In the movie “After the Sunset,” an independent film featuring two people walking around Paris and conversing, Celine narrates a similar experience she had in an Eastern European country, and she “felt at peace,” for the first time.

I used the word constant in the first paragraph, because advertisements not completely avoidable. Bright, flashing pop-up ads on websites and whatnot are not entirely escapable. But they aren’t on the same level; they are easier to ignore.

Of course, pop culture is more than annoying ads. When I come home for breaks I try to make up for all the lost time. (I know this is true of my other collegemates.) Watch long hours of TV, spend hours shopping, listen to trashy pop songs on the radio, and read new cheap thrills at the bookstore.

Cheers to spring break.

Swat Pictures!

Instead of integrating pictures into the entries, as I will in the future, I’m posting an onslaught of them now. However, some of the pictures are cut-off, but I will try to fix that in the future.

The amphitheater back in first semester (nature pictures courtesy of Isabel)

A view of the bell tower (Izzy’s again)

The courtyard of my dorm in the fall

My friends Xioxia and Tiffany in Philadelphia! (sorry it’s a bit blurry. You can tell I took it)

The white board on our door always has so much activity! Next to it is a flyer for Ourstory, the multicultural literary magazine that three girls on my hall and I are a part of.

Bathtub Debate: A Serious Academic Dialogue

Thursday night, the Kohlberg’s Scheur Room was flooded with students for Bathtub Debate event. (I came 10 minutes early and I still had to sit on the floor!) The debate was a dramatic dialogue between three professors who represented each of the three academic divisions at Swarthmore: Natural Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences. This was the sci-fish scenario presented to them: all knowledge in the world has collapsed and there are only representatives from these three divisions left. They are stranded in the middle of the ocean and there’s a bathtub available for only one professor to make to Antarctica. Well, some place that apparently has penguins. Anyways, this was the debate for the academics to duke it out for THEIR LIFE!

Organized by Peaslee Debate Club, it was an amusing take on the value of each academic field. The natural sciences professor emphasized the value of indoor plumbing, the microphone and other useful technology in our modern world. Professor Kuperburg, the Economics professor representing Social Sciences, in his speech, decided to speak without the use of the microphone as a snub to natural sciences, haha.

My other favorite moment was Kuperburg’s point to Professor Tim Burke, the history professor representing humanities, about history. The same historian who is famous for the quote “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” also said, “History is a pack of lies about events that didn’t happen told by people who weren’t there.” Chew on those wise words from George Santyana.

Freshman 15

I remember reading something in a friend’s blog at college and realizing the truth about the Freshman 15. The problem is that there’s just so much free food! Never again will people try and lure you with food. Every time a club or an organization has a public meeting or even at lectures they offer pizza or ethnic food. We had study breaks on Wednesdays (that was today) and there was hardened chocolate fondue, chips, salsa.

The Women’s Resource Center is offering free food on Wednesdays late at night. The point of it is that Swat students can study somewhere on campus after McCabe Library closes, at 1 am, I think. At 10 McCabe offers free coffee.

Freshman year seminars have breaks in between where one student brings in food for the whole class. Sometimes the food is “health”-concious, like diet iced tea and whole-grain wheat thins. (On a side note, Pennsylvania banned trans-fat in all foods so Sharples became a little bit healthier. They have been trying. All the cereals are now organic and sugar free! I now to go Tarble for my honey-nut cheerios)

In my physics seminar last semester the class was divided into two sections of 7 people each. With such few people, we could order in Chinese from Cheng Hings restaurant and pizza from Alfredos. MMMMMmmmMMM

Lastly, people bake! My wonderful news editor always bakes cookies before our section meeting for The Phoenix. There are thirty cookies and a handful of us. Plus, my hall mate just baked a tray full of delicious, warm, gooey cookies and offered a few to me. How could I possibly resist?

Swarthmore isn’t necessarily a gourmet heaven, but it has definitely been blessed by the God of the Plentiful Food.

(Note: It is possible to resist free food. I simply don’t. Cheers)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Aww, I can’t believe that I am already a month into the second semester.

Valentines Day would have been more fun if I had gone to Sharples today, our main dining hall. My friend told me there was a woman playing love songs on the piano by the roaring fire side and offered a wonderful array of colorful themed desserts. It sounded like Sharples dressed in its best for the day. Unfortunately, my aerobics class ends at 6:30 and I take a shower so I can only make it to Essie Maes which opens at 7. Sharples closes at 7:15, I think, but I didn’t realise that it would be so wonderfully festive. However, we did go to Paces Cafe, a student run cafe, at 11 where they had valentine’s special desserts.

There were just too many things to do that night. At the same time there was a wonderful study break happening in our dorm. One of my hall mates told me that they had made chocolate fondue. Curses! I missed all the chocolate.

Lastly, Small Craft Warnings, one literary magazine on campus, held a valentine’s day poetry reading in Kohlberg Hall. I am part of the Ourstory multicultural literary magazine and we had our poetry reading studying break yesterday so I figured one poetry reading sufficed. I think there were three in total: one on Monday by the Queer-Straight Alliance, Ourstory on Tuesday and SCW on Wednesday, lol.

In other news, Delaware County’s weather is far too capricious for my liking. It was all green and warm and then a foot of snow and hail. Dan had to walk to our morning philosophy coffee study session in Kohlberg through from Mary Lyon and he sure made us know how painful it was. It’s a shame that the shuttles don’t run on the days they are most needed! Not to bash ML or anything because I went there for Saturday breakfast and it definitely has its merits.

Speaking of snow, the schools in Chester, a near by city, closed I think. I tutor there as a part of my religion class. I’m going tomorrow and I think Chester deserves its own entry so that will be next.

Cheers and love,

Ramya